Site Update: Vikings Territory at Training Camp

The announcement of Training Camp dates and a rough schedule by the Vikings is about as much news as any NFL organization hopes to release at this time of year, fingers crossed that there isn’t much more to report on the team. For fans, this can be kind of boring, as a dead space in football coverage, even in the offseason, is rare and annoying to deal with. Fortunately, that dead space is coming to a close soon with the arrival of training camp less than a month away.

Along with that news comes some great site news: Vikings Territory has been given media credentials for the duration of camp! That means daily coverage of the camp battles, player interviews and coach pressers, with different types of coverage provided by the different writers who will be able to attend.

Those who are familiar with my work from the past know that I keep extensive 5,000-word notebooks, published daily (or near-daily) at the Daily Norseman. That won’t change, but all player features and updates from coaches will be kept here at Vikings Territory. Any insight on the quarterback battle, the linebacker depth chart or other grossly inaccurate speculation can be found at VT from me and others.

I’ll keep you updated with who can go when, but expect an appearance from Lindsey partway through camp. We may be able to grab some insight from Brett and Adam, too!

The one thing I ask from you all is help getting there. Since becoming a full-time blogger, I’ve been able to cover all my personal expenses but will have difficult extending them to cover additional expenses. I’ve set up a GoFundMe page where you can donate to help pay for the costs of attending and covering training camp.

As detailed on the page, we’re looking to hit $3200 to cover my time at camp—mostly lodging at the hotel nearest camp. Other moneys will be used to help cover some of the costs of others giving up work to go and a charity that Adam will tell you about very soon but one that is close to him. If you want to earmark your donation so that it is split up a different way than is outlined on the GoFundMe page, feel free to mark your donation as private and leave a comment splitting up your donation how you see fit.

Everyone who donates $25.00 or more will receive (if they want) a printed training camp guide written by me with extensive scouting reports on every single player, “what to watch for” at camp and the organizational philosophy surrounding different approaches to training camps. You should receive those a week before camp.

For the past two years, I’ve provided what I believe to be the consistently best coverage at an NFL training camp in the country. I want to continue to do the same thing, but I need your help to do it. Last year, I was able to extend my stay at training camp after many insisted I run a fundraising drive and I was able to do it through a mix of small and large donations—all of which helped me out. Hopefully, I can do the same.

This is very exciting news for VT and I thank you for your help in getting there.

After contributing to the Daily Norseman, Bleacher Report and Cover32, Arif Hasan took an opportunity to contribute at VT to help fulfill its vision to make Vikings Territory the go-to destination for Vikings analysis, news and more. Arif has been involved in blogging and sportswriting for three years and also happens to be an on-again, off-again political consultant as well as a debate and speech coach. Arif is an alum of the University of Minnesota.

I avoided PayPal this year just because it felt less shady to do it through a website. But if you wanted to send through PayPal again, that would be fine, too—just send it to victorbot@gmail.com and I can update the page with an offline donation and put you down for a camp guide if you want one.

Just tried using victorbot@gmail.com but it refuses it and asks me to enter a valid email or phone number. No worries, I’ll use my credit card instead of Paypal, just wanted you to know PP wasn’t working.

And by the way VT fans, if you guys didn’t see Arif’s work last year, you missed out! It was some of the most up to date info on a Vikings Training camp I had ever seen.
Help this guy out and donate whatever you can, you’ll not regret it.

And no, Arif did not put me up to this. I don’t even know the guy except thru his Blogging on all things Vikings.

Right on CSlide!
If anyone needs a reason why we need to get this guy to training camp, click on the link Arif placed in the post above; “5,000-word notebooks.”
Not only is it an incredibly informative post but it also has a 20 minute video of Randy Moss doing some Randy Moss kind of things.
(Every time I see a pass from Favre to Moss in the video, it makes me hate Brad Childress a little more each time. . .)

I’ll check the old piggy bank Arif…I think I can manage some bucks. Do appreciate your work…You put in a lot of effort. As Fran said, your stuff last year was great. I’ll be checking your stuff 1st everyday!